


Roman Holiday

by bellemon



Category: Descendants (2015), Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Divergent, F/F, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Violence won't be that bad but i put the archive warning to be sure, adventures with evie and ben, lots of walking, mom!snow white
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 07:00:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13852503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellemon/pseuds/bellemon
Summary: Evie can feel Carlos’ hand still on her sleeve, tensed and trembling. Even Jay seems unsure, despite the steadiness of his breathing.Mal holds the wand out to her mother, and Evie finds herself praying that someone will make a dive for it again.Please, please, please, whoever’s out there, please don’t -Maleficent reaches out and plucks it from the fingers of her daughter, and hope, like a balloon floating up into the sky, is lost. “Now,” she says, looking around. “Where to begin?”- Things go down way differently in the throne room. Somehow, Ben and Evie end up escaping.





	Roman Holiday

**Author's Note:**

> me: wow, i should finish my other wips before i do anything  
> my brain: POST THIS NEW ONE  
> me: but why  
> my brain: you gotta

Gasps fill the throne room as Mal dives forward and the wand changes hands. 

Evie closes her eyes, pushes down the dread in her heart. She would stand by Mal. She would have to. That doesn’t mean she wants to. Carlos tugs on her hand, forcing her to look at him.  _ We have to go,  _ his eyes tell her. 

She nods. When she looks at Jay, he nods too. They push past the students and other civilians crowded behind them and rush down the stairs. Some look like they want to block the villain kids as they go by. Some look too surprised to even notice.  _ Why are you surprised?  _ She wonders.  _ Only a few weeks ago, you were all sure this was going to happen.  _

They enter the main throne room and rush down the aisle, brushing past the guards with ease. The guards are too scared of the wand in Mal’s hand to stop them, but their eyes follow Evie as she passes, filled with bitterness and betrayal. Ben doesn’t spare them a second glance as they move to stand beside Mal. His focus is elsewhere. 

“Mal,” Ben begs, stepping forward. “Don’t do this. Please, don’t do this.”

Mal brow crumples, her lip trembling. For a moment, Evie is hopeful. Hopeful that Mal will stop this before it’s too late.  _ It’s nice, you know,  _ Evie remembers telling her.  _ I’m going to miss this.  _

_ Miss what?  _ Mal snapped.  _ Having to be good? Getting suspicious looks from a bunch of prissy princesses? I won’t miss it. Any of it.  _ She could see that her friend was lying, but the comment still stung. If she was someone else, she would have gone straight for the jugular. She knew how. She would have said,  _ Not even Ben?  _ But she wasn’t someone else. She was Evie, who’d always been too sweet for her own good. 

“I have to,” Mal is saying. “You don’t understand. You never have.”

Ben recoils a little. “I don’t...Mal, if there’s anything I don’t understand, you can explain it to me. I’ll listen. You know I will. It...it isn’t too late, Mal. Just give Fairy Godmother the wand. It isn’t too late, I prom - “

Maleficent cuts him off, arriving in a flurry of smoke and green light. She stands at the end of the throne room, unfurling herself from the black cape that she so often bears.  _ Now it is,  _ Evie thinks. 

Chaos fills the room. People scream and begin to run towards the entrance, but with a flick of her wrist, Maleficent has all of the doors closed. The guards lift their spears and prepare to charge. Maleficent stops them with a raised hand, freezing them in place. Only the crowd can move, but they are still frozen in place, terrified and unsure. Most of them are students; the select few who are adults are too busy looking out for their children. 

The room is silent. The room is still. It is a parody of serenity; a barrel of dynamite waiting for a spark. 

“Mal,” her grin is slow and menacing as she paces, slow but with the intensity of a cat approaching it’s prey. “The wand, please.” She beckons Mal. 

_ Don’t do it,  _ Evie thinks, traitorously.  _ Don’t give it to her.  _ But, slowly, Mal walks towards her mother, the wand held out for her. Her eyes are transfixed, reverent.  _ Exceeded my expectations.  _ Maleficent knows what to say to get what she wants. Even Evie can’t help the lurch of longing in her stomach, the voice in her head that wishes her mother would speak to her that way. This, too, feels traitorous - but isn’t this what she’s supposed to want? Isn’t this the side she has always been on?

“Mal,” Ben’s voice cracks. 

It happens all at once. Fairy Godmother dives forward, slamming into Mal with a lot more force than Evie thought her capable. The element of surprise is what does it. Mal’s hand is already loose around the wand as she prepares to release it to her mother, but it’s the shock of Fairy Godmother’s actions that makes it so easy to wrestle the object away. They topple to the ground, Mal’s yelp of surprise echoing throughout the room, and Evie wonders if she’s imagining the fact that Mal screams “Mom!”

“Mal!” Evie screams, rushing forward, but Carlos grabs her arm, keeping her from incensing the woman who is now brandishing perhaps the most powerful vessel of magic in Auradon at them. She hears Jay’s growl of disapproval. 

Mal struggles against her hold, but quickly stops with a gasp when Fairy Godmother holds the wand to her neck, eyes wild as she stares Evie, Carlos and Jay down. “Don’t come any closer!”

“Don’t hurt them! Don’t hurt her, please!” Ben cries out, also rushing down the steps. 

“Ben, they’re trying to  _ kill us _ !” Chad chimes in. The crowd cries out in outraged agreement.

“ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP!” Maleficent cries out, finally, and the chaos of the people is cut off abruptly. Chad tries to speak again, but no sound comes out. She flexes her fingers, holds them up to the light to admire them. “That’s more like it.” Her eyes land on Fairy Godmother, and she sighs, “Now, darlin’, why did you have to ruin my perfect entrance like that? No manners.” 

“We can talk about this,” Ben cuts in, stepping forward. He looks frightened and courageous both, and Evie finds herself thinking,  _ oh. So that’s what Mal sees. _ “No one has to get hurt.  _ Mal  _ doesn’t have to get hurt.” He looks at Fairy Godmother, at Chad, at everyone in the room.

“Oh, the time for talking is long past, little prince. But how  _ sweet  _ of you to offer. You really did a job on this one, didn’t ya, sweetheart?” She looks at Mal, still enveloped in Fairy Godmother’s arms, and Evie sees her trying to hide her cringe. Maleficent doesn’t notice, but her eyes harden,  fingers making a beckoning motion as she looks at the woman who holds her daughter hostage. “Now give me the wand.”

Fairy Godmother looks like a cornered animal, but she still finds it in her to sneer. “Never.” She pulls the wand from Mal’s neck, points it, and says the words - the words that Evie once thought she’d never hear in her life. “Bippity, boppity, boo!”

A ray of light shoots out of the wand, hits the floor by Ben’s feet, leaving a smoking hole in the floor all the way across the room. He gives a cry of surprise, leaps away. In the confusion, Mal manages to wrestle herself free, snatch the wand from Fairy Godmother’s hand. Maleficent barks with laughter. “Looks like you’re losing your touch, old woman!” 

“You won’t get away with this,” Fairy Godmother hisses. 

“Oh, I’ve been waiting for twenty years to finally show you how wrong you are about that. Payback’s a bit of a bitch, isn’t it?” 

“Mal, don’t do this. You’re better than this,” Ben implores, taking a step forward. 

Evie chances a look at Ben, who looks both stricken and conflicted. She thinks about his hand, warm and welcoming in hers when they arrived into this new world. She thinks about the slow smile he gave Mal when they first met, the way he gripped her hand longer than he should have. She thinks about how amused he seemed by Jay and Carlos, how endeared he was to their antics. 

She thinks of all these things, and imagines saying,  _ I’m sorry. I’m sorry for breaking your trust. I’m sorry for everything.  _

Then she looks back at Mal, tense but straight-backed, proud and unyielding. A warrior in queen’s clothing. The wand trembles only a little.

Her green eyes flicker to Ben, something feral in them, “No. I’m better than  _ this,”  _ she motions to her dress, rumpled from her struggle. Evie can hear the slight tremor in her voice, but aside from that, Mal hides herself well. She has always been the better liar. “And I’m better than  _ that _ .” She looks at the throne at the top of the stairs, at the crown on Ben’s head. “You don’t understand, Ben.”

“But I can,” he tries. “I can try. Just give me a chance, Mal. All you need to do is - “

“As much as I hate to interrupt this beautiful heart-to-heart, I’m afraid I have a kingdom to conquer. The wand, sweetheart?”

Evie can feel Carlos’ hand still on her sleeve, tensed and trembling. Even Jay seems unsure, despite the steadiness of his breathing. 

Mal holds the wand out to her mother, and Evie finds herself praying that someone will make a dive for it again.  _ Please, please, please, whoever’s out there, please don’t -  _

Maleficent reaches out and plucks it from the fingers of her daughter, and hope, like a balloon floating up into the sky, is lost. “Now,” she says, looking around. “Where to begin?” 

Her eyes land on Audrey, almost immediately, and light up. “Well, if it isn’t Sleeping Beauty’s little girl. You look like your mother, you know. Let’s see how well you take to the family legacy.” She raises the wand, pointing it at Audrey’s terrified face. The girl stares down the end of the wand, lip trembling and eyes full of fear. “Bippity, boppity - “

“Don’t!” Evie cries out, almost unbidden. Despite the girl’s horrible mistreatment of her, Evie can’t stand the idea of seeing one of her classmates be put to eternal sleep right before her eyes. Everyone turns to her in shock, and Carlos tugs insistently at her sleeve. She ignores him.  _ Think, Evie. Be brave.  _ The isle has taught her manipulation, but never prepared her for an opponent like Maleficent, who is both older and much more experienced. “Don’t hurt her. If you hurt her, Aurora and her king will never come. And aren’t they the ones you want to take revenge on?”

Maleficent frowns, looking at Evie as if she is seeing her for the first time. “Is this not the best revenge? And it will lure them better, if they think that they are her only way of being woken.”

“But….” Evie trails off, looking around. Her eyes catch Ben’s, and he looks oddly impressed. She turns back to Maleficent. “But maybe it’s better to threaten to make her sleep. Send them a video of her, awake and well, begging them to come rescue her. A picture of her dead asleep could be mistaken as a corpse, and they’ll never come if they think they’ve been tricked.”

Audrey looks affronted, and opens her mouth, but Evie sends her a dangerous look.  _ Don’t you  _ fucking  _ dare. _ She shuts her mouth. 

When she looks at Maleficent again, she is frowning. Then her face distorts, and she releases a cackle. “Looks like your mother has shown you something other than empty-headed platitudes to please a prince. Fair enough, then! The girl stays untouched. For now.” She tilts her head. 

Evie has to hide her sigh of relief. It’s short-lived, however, as Maleficent whirls on Ben, raising the wand again. 

“You, however? Your parents are already here. And nothing subdues a kingdom better than the crowned king being done away with.”

The room erupts into chaos again. People try to surge forward, to save the prince, but with a wave of her hand, they are all frozen in place. All except Ben and the villain kids. Evie tries to catch Mal’s eye, but she is standing by her mother in a way that blocks Evie’s view.

“Wait,” Jay says desperately, looking at Mal as well. “Wait, Mal, don’t let her do this - “

“Sympathizing with the enemy, Jay? Your father won’t be happy to hear this.”

Jay shrinks back, his jaw clenching angrily. 

“Mom, you never said you’d hurt him,” Mal cuts in, her voice uncertain. 

Evie expects Ben to do something, to run, to say anything. But instead he is staring at Mal, eyes burning with anguish. Maleficent tilts her head, looking contemplative for a moment. “You’re right.”

The moment hands on the edge of a sword. Evie finds the hope in her chest rising. 

“But I never said I wouldn’t, either,” she says. She aims the wand at Ben, eyes fiery with wicked glee. “Bippity, boppity, boo.”

Green-white light illuminates the room, bathes everyone’s faces in a bright hue. The only thought Evie can think is,  _ Mal will never be the same if that spell hits him.  _

She’s running before she can doubt herself. Before her own fear can set in. Ben’s eyes are on the ray of light speeding towards him, and he doesn’t see her coming. But he definitely must feel it, as she lunges, as she crashes into him, knocking them both over. Pain shoots up Evie’s arm. The acrid stench of smoke and burnt flesh permeates the air. 

And then they’re falling, falling, falling, in a flash of brilliant light, as they land right into the portal Fairy Godmother created. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> So! I've been working on this since, like, Descendants first came out, which is probably a testament to my ability to finish anything. I've got the plot laid out and everything's planned and stuff, but I can't promise a consistent updating schedule. However, for those who commented/showed interest in "hold me darling (your arms are mine until morning)" I'm currently working on the next chapter, and I promise I will return to it. Anyways, until then, I'll just irresponsibly post new WIPs because apparently I'm not as crammed for time as it is!


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